Extensive use is made of suspended ceilings which are suitably supported below a structural ceiling in primarily industrial and commercial construction.
The suspended ceiling is formed of interlocking grid beam members generally of an inverted T-cross section. Such beam members are generally formed of strip steel suitably bent to provide a vertically extending web section, horizontally extending shoulders or flanges at the bottom of the web section, and a suitable reinforcing box member at the top of the web. Numerous different design interlocking structures are used to provide, when assembled, grid or structural members which are then supported from the structural ceiling by, for instance, a plurality of wires which are secured through holes in the web of the beam at the lower end and to anchors in the structural ceiling at the upper end. Acoustical tiles in the form of rectangles or squares are supported within and by the structural members whereby a suspended ceiling is formed below the structural ceiling.
Panel lighting, heating and ventillating units can also be suitably located within and supported by the suspended ceiling.
The grid supporting structure of beams described above was generally formed within the vertical walls of the individual rooms of the finished building. Such walls included structural walls as well as interior partition walls. The suspended grid structure generally terminated at the edge of and within both the structural and partition walls. A wall molding having an angle cross section supported the grid beams. An upper extending leg of the angle was fastened against the wall and the horizontal extending angle formed a ledge or flange which received and supported the lower T-section of the beam.
The result was generally a plurality of individual suspended ceilings, with each room having in effect its individual ceiling unconnected with the ceiling in the adjacent room.
In constructing such ceilings, it has been the general practice to create interior partition walls which extend vertically to at least a height of the proposed suspended ceiling, and often above such height up to the structural ceiling. These partition walls were customarily erected prior to the construction of the suspended ceiling and in most instances, the partition walls were used to additionally support the suspended ceiling wherein the suspended ceiling was formed within the perimeter of the structural walls and the partition walls, as described above.
Rooms within buildings are often changed after the initial construction. Frequently, interior walls are removed and replaced to provide varying space. In the past, when walls were removed and replaced, the various individual suspended ceilings within the room generally were affected since the ceilings frequently terminated at the former partition wall line. This left a gap corresponding to the former wall thickness extending in the ceiling at the old partition line. Additionally, the suspended beam structure above the new partition wall line interfered with the conventional construction practice since the suspended ceilings were put in after the partition walls were erected rather than before. Also, since the partition walls were removed, the wall molding was also removed, leaving the beam ends unsupported.
In summary, conventional practice has generally required interior partition walls to be erected first and the suspended ceiling to be placed within the partition walls. Any change in partition walls required the old ceilings to be removed and new ceilings to be erected within the walls.
There have been efforts in the prior art to provide suitable devices for connecting partition walls at their top to continuously extending structural grid members. Such connection, in one instance, consists of a formed strap member which in effect draped over the entire T-section in the form of an inverted U over the web with horizontal ears which extend outwardly from the arms of the U, approximately at the level of the flange of the inverted T-section. The walls were then secured to this, in effect, strap hanger.
In another instance, where the flange of the inverted T was in the form of a channel, a member having a lower indented clip portion snapped into the boxlike flange of the inverted T structural member, while the remaining portion of the clip wrapped around one side of the flange box channel.
In both such connections, placing the connection element in position involved a tedious operation, and the connector itself lacked an easily accessible, firm and compact anchor portion.
With the straplike arrangement, it was inconvenient to connect the channel to the strap since, when the connecting sheet metal screw was forced up into the ears of the strap, the strap simply snapped off the web portion and lifted up. Additionally, where the walls ran perpendicularly, or across, a given suspended beam structure, the strap had a tendency to slip longitudinally along the web of the suspended beam structure, causing the wall to move laterally with respect to the beam, whereby the top of the wall shifted.
In yet another early attempt to anchor partition walls at the tops thereof from a suspended beam grid element, where the flange was in the form of an inverted box channel in cross section, heads with suitably sized bolts were threaded into the channel portions with the thread of the bolt extending downwardly to pass through holes in wall channels. Nuts were then used to secure the channels to the bolts and beam elements. Again, such practice was tedious, and unsatisfactory since the wall again often wobbled laterally of the beam, since the bolts would shift during erection of the wall.